[password] Ridingmore
[position] 1 03.8N 117 51W
[weather]SSE14-18 knots
[speed]6-9 knots
[status] That current was certainly nice while it lasted, but the dream run is over for now and we now seem to be struggling to make hull speed, despite good wind, so likely dealing with a little adverse current.
We also are starting to drag our own little reef system on the starboard topsides of the boat, which has now been semi-permanently immersed for several weeks of running in the same direction! Kath and I have been removing goose barnacles from our transom (Lepas spp., ubiquitous throughout the worlds oceans, easily identified by the 2 grey/white plates (shells, like a small flat grey-white mussel) delineated by dark edges, and the whole lot supported by a soft rubbery neck (tooks like a teensie weensie pecker!) which is a similar length to the shell, or slightly longer, and attaches to sections of your hull without antifoulling. And there is definitely green filamentous algae starting to grow on our starboard topsides too. The goose barnacles will be easy to remove whilst they are young, but they are hard to reach while we are sailing! As long as we do this in the first few days of our arrival in FP they shouldn't leave any trace behind. The algae is more problematic...
We'll be ticking off 2/3 of the way through this passage this afternoon, and have started our dive south and will be crossing the equator tomorrow, so lots of reasons to celebrate! And sacrifices to be made me maties, har har!! There's talk of shaving some heads, so we'll see how that progresses!!

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